Re "The Clash Between Religion and Science" - I'd be curious about the how happy scientists are compared to the general population.

Personally I'm am atheist and tend strongly towards the 'science can explain everything' sphere. I find the idea that we evolved from nothing and that we're a speck in the universe very sexy when I think about it, though my day-to-day reality is fairly mundane just like everyone else. I'm fairly happy.

Wondering if a literal belief in god makes happy or if thinking about galaxies and evolution makes you happiest.

As a total side note I've had a fair bit of exposure to Buddhist philosophy and Deepak's work so I'm quite open to the idea of reality being a product of our consciousness. When I say I'm an atheist and I say there is no god I mean there's no super human in the sky. That's what the mainstream conception of god is. I'm not sure why deepak keeps using the word 'god' when he means 'consciousness' - it's just confusing. Stop using the word god it's confusing, especially since you're more of an atheist then I am!

Even consciousness is confusing, since to most people that simple means being awake as opposed to being passed out

We need a new word :)

"Faith in the Brain: Are Some People Hard Wired to Believe in God?"

Deepak, would you please be kind enough and replace “God” with “The Supernatural” or “Supernatural God”?

It will help eliminating misunderstandings. Thanks.

Be(lie)f in God is a fiction, knowing is the only thing that counts.

~Infinite Play

Dear Stevesnz,and Skeptisch,

You guys need to work on the word EGO instead of the word GOD. What makes you so important that you can speak for everyone when you say we need a new word besides GOD, or that it is too confusing. While I have no reason to doubt that you are unhappy with the word GOD, and that it may cause you confusion since you are an atheist, it isn't that way for me, and I suspect a host of other people who do believe in GOD.

Soooo go ahead and argue your beliefs, but please quit trying to dictate to everyone else what words should, or shouldn't be in their vocabulary.

Thanks
Stan

To many people God reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists. That God is completely different from the one who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.

So why not start the discussion by eliminating one or the other? God can’t be both! He is either natural or supernatural.

While I believe that God reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, that doesn't precluded him from being involved in humanity which is also part of all that exists.

God is a deep mystery. To even begin to understand God, a person has to seriously study and try and solve that mystery step by step. Some people would rather just tear that G page out of the dictionary.

Kind Regards,
A student of the mysteries
Stan

Stan says: “…that doesn't precluded him from being involved in humanity which is also part of all that exists”

No problem, your God is supernatural.

I love God and to me God is very real. God loves all of us very much and knows that we ALL love God. That's my input.

Anyway, what I really wanted to comment on was the water bullet above. There were experiments to where people sent different thoughts to separate containers of water (i.e., in that Down The Rabbit Hole, What the Bleep cd). Then they froze the water and looked at the crystal ice. The thoughts of love sent to the water, made the most beautiful pattern, which was more lovelier than all of the other ice crystals.

Love, Char

I need to clean up my grammer.

While I believe that God reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, that doesn't precluded God (not "him", which is too limited a definition) from being revealed ( not "involved" which is to personal) in humanity which is also part of all that exists.

My God is both natural and supernatural depending on what God is being comparing to.
IE God is a natural part of the lawful harmony of all that exisits and God is supernatural when compared to the limited understanding of humanity.

Kind Regards,
Stan

You will all like this article.

The false gods of scientific medicine revealed: It's a cult, not a science

www.newstarget.com/021922.html

Or click my name

The Church of Medical Truth
While defenders of conventional medicine don't have membership in the club of genuine science, they are card-carrying members of another organization: The Church of Medical Truth (similar to the Ministry of Truth from 1984). In this Church, the beliefs of members (doctors, FDA bureaucrats, media reporters, etc.) are handed down from the high priests, and those beliefs -- that all drugs are good, all vitamins are bad, etc. -- are blindly followed by the faithful, who dare not question those beliefs on any genuine scientific basis.

This is how doctors have come to believe the incredible: That food has nothing to do with health, that antioxidants will kill you, that herbs interfere with drugs, and that only drugs can treat or cure disease. It's a cult-like belief system handed down by the high priests of conventional medicine, and if this intricate web of false beliefs was actually subjected to genuine scientific scrutiny, it would crumble into a thousand pieces of junk science and marketing propaganda.
~Newstarget

Yes, I do have faith. As a child I soon begin to perceive that the Universe destroys as much as it creates. Thrilled by the animation of matter in my pet kitten I then have to come to terms with it dead in a box. Some day, any day, that could be MY animation snuffed. My animation is all I know. I cannot know void. The potential to animation seems ever-present. Life must be eternal. 'Death' if we accept it as a reality, inevitably gives rise to 'GO Death' in our thought forms. 'Go death' is our animation and I have to say the spectrum runs from Science to Spirituality, inclusive if I examine it at this root cause. Yes I have faith in this self-evident animation. When all of our faith in 'death', the way we subscribe to its subtle self-servings in relation to each other, is finally purged, the void will be our playground. Woo hoo!

"Short Mental Workouts May Slow Decline of Aging Minds"

There are lots of possibilities nowadays in this respect, especially on computers. There are loads of free little games to play in this respect on the Internet. So it won't even have to cost that much money, provided elder people are interested in the computer.

More and more so-called Senior Webs are set up, especially focussed on this subject.

What is also a very good excercice is playing memory games with your grandchildren or puzzles or all those kind of family games there are.

"Study Says Depression May Weaken Bones"

Practicing Yoga with guided visualization is a wonderful possibility. Even if you are not able to do the physical exercise(s), if you are able to visualize it, it already has a result for the better.

Those of us, who are lucky enough to enjoy brains wired to accept a natural God, tend to be happy, well adjusted and well educated. Most scientists recognize the natural God and by definition, a scientist is well educated. They do not carry the burden of the afterlife.

They know how precious our short stay on our “Pale Blue Dot” is. How unbelievably lucky we are to be here and we realise, through our consciousness and our minds, where we come from and where we are going.

However, if we want to keep on going anywhere at all, more people have to start living in the real world, the one that really exists. Not the one we make up because we are uncomfortable with the real one, or because the pretenders tell us it exists. The pretenders don’t know the unknowable; nobody “knows” that there is a life after death.

Yes, we are all free to believe whatever we want to believe but please don’t tell us you “know” things that are beyond knowing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

I believe there is spirituality. I see it as a part of our humaness, not as supernatural.

There are many belief systems built around the mysteries of our existance. To me they are all beautiful for what they are, but none holds any more truth than any other for me.

How ever we got here, I am happy to be here for a moment on our "Pale Blue Dot".

derek

One man's knowing is another man's supernatural.

Regards,
Stan

The Pale Blue Dot as per post # 19.

“To live in the hearts we leave behind is to never die.” Carl Sagan.

Dr. Sagan’s sagacity, wit, intellectual honesty, mundanity, sophistication, and broad general knowledge, coupled with his uncanny ability to easily explain the matters of the universe in a language that ordinary folks could readily understand, were a true delight to all who were fortunate enough to have indulged in his utter brilliance.

Unfortunately, Sagan lived at a time that could be aptly described as the height of the dark ages in which he was a shimmering beacon in the immense blackness. It was also an age that witnessed a great explosion of intellectual dishonesty and charlatanism everywhere, in most cultures, and the exploitation of the gullible masses.

But he did make a difference in how many perceive the universe! Regrettably, though, man’s worst anathema, religion, remains firmly intact.

Thank you, pal!

You are welcome, BPR, and good night. Maybe synchronicity exists! :-)

Maybe, baby!

I wish you guys would swing your little egos
over to Avtar's big Ego article. I for one,
would love to hear your opinions on this matter.
Is it matter, does it matter and what's the matter
is on everyone's platter so come and pitter away.

Gracious! Keith~

guys & gals...

there's a toll-free number now to reach deepak...have u phoned him yet? oh, was the line busy? sorry, please try again!

the number is 1-888-410-2102.

Love this one, very informative.

V